MILITARY: Five Marine suicides reported in August

Five Marines took their own lives in August, raising the self-inflicted death toll among troops this year to 39.

The suicides this year surpass the 32 reported by the Marine Corps in all of 2011, a trend that a general who heads the service's suicide prevention program says has to be reversed.

The
August report
from the Marine Corps also says 12 troops attempted to take their own lives, raising that figure for the year to 128 compared with 163 for all of 2011.

Marine Corps officials who work with the Suicide Prevention Program at the service's headquarters were not immediately available for comment.

But during an Aug. 30 visit to San Diego's Miramar Marine Corps Air Station, Brig. Gen. Robert Hedelund stressed that troops need to watch for warning signs among their friends and that those troops having problems need to seek help.

If the monthly pace continues, this year's self-inflicted toll will exceed a record 52 Marine suicides recorded in 2009.

The number of suicide attempts this year also is on track to surpass a high of 172 reported in 2010.

Officials have said that attempts are up in part because fellow troops are more aware of their peers in trouble and increasingly report those they believe have attempted suicide.

Self-inflicted deaths are a continuing and significant problem throughout all branches of the U.S. military.

Health officials attribute the continuing rise to the stresses of more than a decade of war.

Those stresses include exposure to violence and emotional trauma from battlefield experiences. But health officials also say that relationship problems, financial stresses, drug and alcohol abuse, and post-traumatic stress are major contributing factors.

On Monday, the Obama administration said a new focus was needed on preventing suicides, especially among veterans.

The federal government said it was increasing its staff at a national hotline, 800-273-TALK, that's open to military and civilians.

The Marine Corps operates a similar hotline and website for troops and their families called DSTRESS. It can be reached at 877-476-7734 or at
www.dstressline.com
.

That service is staffed by veteran Marines and Navy corpsmen as well as Marine spouses and licensed behavioral health counselors trained in Marine culture.

This year's 39 Marine suicides include one woman. Twenty-nine of the troops were between the ages of 17 and 25, and 17 were married.